How many jackasses can you cram into Williams Arena?

The BBQ Pit
1

The governor and first lady walked out shaking their heads in disbelief. They were booed, as were Trent Lott and Norm Coleman. A bunch of jackasses turned a tribute to Paul Wellstone into a campaign rally, even after having agreed to turn off the campaign for a while.

Ventura said he felt “violated”, and was so incensed that he’s decided to appoint an Independent rather than a Democrat to fill the lame duck vacancy. WCCO-TV received dozens of calls during the service from outraged viewers.

I thought it was a bit odd that they snubbed the Vice-president, but all I can say is what a bunch of jackasses. Shame on you. All you did was spit on Wellstone’s memory.

A reporter even called Bill Walsh and asked what was the Republican response to the memorial. A stunned Walsh responded, “Do you realize what you just said?”

Jerks. Jackasses. Not a drop of class among the whole lot of you.

2

Cite please.

3

Ayslum, turn on any channel showing the news and you will have your cite in a matter of minutes.

And to answer the OP:

The arena holds 14000+ people (conceivably they could all be jackasses).

4

I wasn’t there, but I know people that were. They weren’t all jackasses. Plenty of people comported themselves with decorum fitting a memorial.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of jackasses. Some of them even gave eulogies.

(And Jesse walking out isn’t a big deal, Jesse has his good qualities. Not among them is being able to tolerate that some people don’t like him and disagree with him. He has walked out on interviews in the past if the journalists asks him tough questions.)

5

I don’t have cable.

CNN All I could find on short notice.

6

I am sure this story is being well covered on broadcast news as well.

7

Not wanting to hijack a possible rant about how crappy party based politics can be but it’s after 7:30 in my area. Only syndicated shows are on, no news.

8

who should decide what is a fitting memorial for the late Sen. and his family?

IMHO, it would be his remaining family. ANd since his son was one of the speakers and apparently also helped choose the other speakers, it would seem that it was his choice as the best way to honor his father and mother’s memories.

woudln’t have been my personal choice, but there ya go.

9

I guess that leaves us free to call his son a jackass?

10

This being America (for the purposes of this discussion), you can call Wellstone’s son anything you want.

11

::shrug::
that’s the OP’s premise.

like I said, ‘twouldn’t be my personal cup o’ tea, but the folks who, I think, have the moral authority to be pissed off, would be his remaining family. I saw his one son give an impassioned speech (or at leasts a few seconds of sound bite), calling on people to vote democratic to keep his dad’s memory alive, 'cause that’s what his dad would have wanted.

It seems to me, that it’s unlikely that his son would do so if he felt that such a gig would damage his dad’s memory.

I understand that others felt it was in poor taste. But here’s the thing - I might think that Graceland being open to tourists is the height of ill mannared ‘lets git rich offun daddy’s memory’, but it really was up to Elvis’ legal heirs. and my vote doesn’t count in that race.

12

It’s all well and good that the family chose to have whatever type of memorial they wanted, in private. However, this particular event was broadcast to the populace under the guise of a memorial, not as a campaign event. The speakers who chose to campaign for the Dems during the memorial, in effect, stole that airtime from the networks.

The networks never intended to broadcast Democratic campaign speeches for free, but could not cut them off out of respect for Wellstone. On top of it, the Dems demanded a moratorium on campaigning, but broke that during the memorial itself.

It’s a damn shame that people couldn’t just remember the man without trying to pull in more voters.

13

Wellstone was a populist after all. A high class libertarian compliant memorial would have been completely out of character with the man. His life’s work pissed off pro-wrestlers, republicans, and various other fringe elements. Why should his death services be any different ?

14

The Republicans are a fringe element now? When did that happen?

15

Well, I didn’t want to single out the wrestlers or the libertarians so I figured what the heck, there’s plenty of room in the tent for pubbies too. :slight_smile:
Some folks just seem to be getting awfully bent of shape over an easily understandable handling of the event.

16

I was there. Only one speaker, Rick Kahn (who was Wellstone’s closest friend) gave an overtly poitical speech. It took up about 20 minutes of a five hour memorial. The conservative media has focused on this one guy (most of the people in Williams felt uncomfortable about his speech btw) because it is politically self-serving to do so.

Scotth, Wellstone’s sons lost their father, their mother and their sister all in one day. It is rather callous to call them names. They themselves did not give political speeches. They did not know what Kahn was going to say in his speech, they asked him to speak because he was their father’s best friend.

The event was not just a “rally.” It was, for the most part, a very moving memorial which was briefly hijacked by one maverick speaker.

The heads of both the DFL in Minnesota and the Wellstone campaign expressed regret today about Kahn’s speech and vociferously asserted that they did not know what kahn was going to do. This was not an act committed by the “democrats” but by one guy who went off the reservation.

Of course, fat-ass Rush and his right-wing radio bretheren spent all day whining about this, but the truth is, they should be grateful. If kahn hadn’t handed them this ammunition, they would have no wedge at all in this race.

Trent Lott received a few scattered boos. So what. Nobody held up a “boo” sign. What was the DFL supposed to do about it?

Jesse Ventura pretty much gets booed everywhere he goes these days, regardless of the politics of the crowd. I was at a Twins play-off game at the Metrodome a couple of weeks ago where Jesse sang “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” He was booed rather lustily.

May I remind everyone that Hillary Clinton was booed at the 9/11 memorial. Conservatives loved it then. Why is this different?

Mondale had an eight point lead in the polls as of monday night. A lot of dems were embarrassed by Kahn’s behavior but this does not mean that they are ready to hand over all three branches of government to the most right-wing administration in recent memory.

17

Bye Paul. I hope that somewhere you’ll be able to find an appropriate moment of silence. This obviously wasn’t the time.

18

Well, we’re working on it, Friedo. We’re working on it.

What the hell do you guys think happened? A whole bunch of Minnesotan trooped solemnly to Williams Arena, and there were manipulated by a cunning band of Democrats. Oh, the perfidy! The subterfuge! Thousands of people stampeded into a rigidly orchestrated display of false enthusiasm, and sham emotion, largely against their will. Uh huh. Sure. Or, as they say in Hibbing, tres youbetcha!

C’mon guys! They did it because they wanted to! Nobody was conned into this. Can you imagine this kind of enthusiasm for say, Phil Gramm? Trent Lott? In fact, any Republican Senator, with the exception of John McCain? Dream on!

And as for this crapola about how loathesome and shallow Bill and Hillary are for smiling? Gimmee a break! How could they not, the place was thumping and bumping with enthusiasm, in large part directed at them! What the hell did you expect them to do, scold a crowd of worshipful admirers?

They already had the funeral: utterly dignified, no reporters, no photo ops, nada, just family and friends. And it was over. Who says a memorial has to be solemn?

The Pubbies were hoping to make this “bipartisan” and get at least some scraps from the table, at least a smattering of “me, too” approval. They got shut down, shut out, and shut up. And now they want to whine about “dignity”. Bullpucky! Horsetrickle!

It was nothing less then thier worse nightmare: a rousing display of loving enthusiasm for a man who principles represent everything that scares them right down to their tightly quivering sphincters, an honest to goodness old fashioned grass roots Populist. Serves 'em right, says I.

19

Have you been in a cave?.

Jeff Blodgett, the Wellstone campaign manager, was even moved to apologize for it. And regarding Kahn’s speech, he said “I deeply regret it”.

Elucidator

Spinning this travesty with words like “honest” and “goodness” pulls tastelessness down to a new low. Wellstone was not a party lacky. He voted his conscience. And conscience was missing from this event.

20

As someone who was also there, I’m going to chime in with a belated “me too” to what Diogenes said. It was not organized as a rally, it was not scripted as a rally, and it is unfortunate that Kahn chose to politicize it.

And the mob got swept away.